Waterfront businesses hope for boost from new website

A new website dedicated to the South Boston waterfront has a fitting sponsor: Boston Private Bank & Trust Co., an early tenant at the pioneer development Seaport Place.

The bank, based across Fort Point Channel in Post Office Square, opened its Seaport Boulevard office nine years ago — and recently signed for 10 more years in the complex developed by Fidelity Investments’ affiliate Pembroke Real Estate.

“When we first came out here … it was a little bit like a frontier,” said George Schwartz, Boston Private’s chief operating officer. “We were like pioneers, arrivals to an area with natural beauty, unrealized potential and great opportunity — and we’ve seen that realized.”

Schwartz and other business and civic leaders launched the website (www.bostonsnewwaterfront.com) this morning at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

“With this new website, we’ll continue to promote this thousand acres of opportunity,” said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

“I believe that businesses that have been here for years are just as important to our economy as the new startups, that they can thrive side by side.”

Menino also credited developer Joe Fallon, who “took a chance” in buying Fan Pier for $115 million in 2005 and more recently helped spur the mayor’s waterfront “Innovation District” by luring Vertex Pharmaceuticals from Cambridge.

Boston's New Waterfront - Seaport District - South Boston Waterfront

The privately run website is open to all businesses located on the waterfront, from mom-and-pop restaurants to major corporations.

“This is not a pay-to-play website,” said Jim Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. “If you exist in the South Boston waterfront, you will be on the website.

Certainly there are ways to embellish your presence … through a little bit of sponsorship money.”

An upgrade to a “landing page” will cost $1,500 a year, while a hyperlink will cost $465, according to Craig Cunningham, vice president of marketing for the Seaport Cos., manager of the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center.

Boston's New Waterfront - Seaport District - South Boston Waterfront

Rooney noted that the site breaks down the sprawling waterfront area into “distinct districts” such as Fort Point, Fan Pier and the Marine Industrial Park, home to 200 businesses and 3,000 workers.

The site also highlights projects still in the works including the massive Seaport Square neighborhood and Waterside Place, the Drew Co.’s 19-story apartment building that’s close to breaking ground and may include a supermarket or pharmacy in its ground-floor retail space.

“I really think it’s going to help introduce all the existing businesses that are here and the ones to come,” said Yianni Tsaousidis, owner of Stapleton Floral, which has a shop on East Broadway in the traditional residential section of South Boston and a second shop, opened nine years ago, on Seaport Boulevard.

Tsaousidis told the crowd at the convention center that he’s worked on the waterfront for more than 30 years, starting out as a 16-year-old at Jimmy’s Harborside — which has been transformed into the striking Liberty Wharf.

“I can’t believe the changes that are here,” he said.

In less than a month, another new eatery will spice up the waterfront, whose restaurant scene got a big boost with Liberty Wharf’s lineup of Jerry Remy’s, Legal Sea Foods, Del Frisco’s and Temazcal.

Rosa Mexicano, a New York-based chain of 13 restaurants, will open on May 5 — or “Cinco de Mayo” — in Pembroke Real Estate’s Seaport West building, on the corner of B Street.

Boston's New Waterfront - Seaport District - South Boston Waterfront

Miggy Mason and Roisin Giese, owners of Twelve Chairs, said the new website may help attract customers to their home furnishings shop and interior design studio in Fort Point.

“As a brick and mortar store we’re always looking for more ways to get more people into our shop,” Mason said.